Kiss on Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: ‘We’ll Just Buy It and Fire Everybody’

Ted Nugent once said he wanted to buy Muzak for $10 million in order to shut it down, since it represented everything “uncool” about music. Now, Kiss bassist Gene Simmons has similar feelings towards the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The band has been eligible for induction into the music institution since 1999, but they’ve yet to be voted in. You can bet that Simmons’ feathers are ruffled by their continued exclusion from the HOF.

At Tuesday’s (March 20) press conference in Los Angeles announcing the epic co-headlining tour that Kiss will embark upon with Motley Crue, Simmons addressed the fact that they’ve been dissed by the Hall for 13 years.

“It’s become a joke,” he told Rolling Stone. “We’ve been thinking about it and the answer is simply, ‘We’ll just buy it and fire everybody.’”

Purchase, re-staff and rename it the Kiss Hall of Fame? Sounds like a Kourse of action.

Despite the joke, Simmons changed his tone immediately, saying, “In all seriousness for the fans, for something to be called Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is such an insult to Madonna, Blondie and Tone Loc. Who the f— knows what other disco act is in there? It’s an insult to them because they don’t get to be in the ‘Dance Hall of Fame,’ because that’s what they do. They’re legitimate dance, disco artists. They don’t belong in rock and roll.”

While the Demon has a point there, we don’t think Madonna is feeling bad about her election to the Hall, since it is, after all, an honor. And Tone Loc is not a member of the Hall of Fame, actually.

His bandmate Paul Stanley (who was probably actually the one wearing feathers during the conversation) concurred, saying, “The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has reached a point where they’re really scrounging and scratching to find someone left that they consider viable.” He continued, “With all due respect, when you get to Patti Smith you’re about two steps away from Pete Seeger.”

We think that Gene, Paul and Kiss have a legitimate gripe. But it does sound a bit like sour grapes. They won’t be the Susan Lucci of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame forever. We are confident they will eventually get in and it’ll have been worth the wait, boys.

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